As Pingpong is helping New Yorkers beat Parkinson’s disease

NYU Economics professor at Bill Easterly, a highly respected expert in foreign aid, global poverty and development in Africa, can add a new title to his long resume – Pingpong Player Extraordinaire.

Easterly, 67, captures the unusual ability as a way to cope with Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegeneous disorder that can cause vibration, slow movement and depression.

“I just can’t get enough,” Easterly Post said. “When I play table tennis, I just feel my brain enlivened.”

There is no cure for Parkinson – but Easterly and others have found healing by playing several times a week in the New York Spin Flation as part of the table tennis.

Non -profit has been a devastating success with over 300 chapters in 25 places and an inaugural tournament of New York Open held earlier this month.

Participants withdraw that rhythmic movements and social interaction have increased their mood and helped delay the progress of their symptoms in Parkinson.

“I don’t know whether it’s because of table tennis or not, but I started with a vibration in my right hand, which I don’t have now,” said Joan Greenberg, 77, a retired mosaic writer and artist who is now Jokes an elderly Elite NYC athlete.

One of the pingong complaints, told Greenberg Post, is that it can track its improvement. And being on table table tennis makes it easy to share its experience to be diagnosed in 2020 and to hear from others.

“Creed is created a social circle of people who are in the same situation,” she said. “Not only do we have Parkinson, but we are the type of people who want to do something proactive for ourselves.”

Camp Parkinson’s

Pingpontarkinson is the mind of Croatian-American music Nenad Bach, who has performed with bonds and Luciano Pavarotti and rocked Woodstock ’94 with “Can we go above?”

He was diagnosed in 2010, with his symptoms becoming so bad that he could no longer play guitar in a syncoping beat.

“I had to stop publicly performing,” Bach, 70, told The Post. “After I started playing [pingpong, after three or four] months I could play again. If I help myself, I said, why not others? Everything started there. ”

Bach founded Pingpongparkinson in 2017 – now, there are over 3,000 players worldwide, including 50 in Flation location.

He falsified the partnership with the spin in 2021. Three times a week, 17-25 seniors fill around a dozen of “Parkinson’s Camp”. Two-hour afternoon sessions occur before the public club is opened.

Bach said no one has left, even if they do not have a $ 15 participation fee, which paid the benefits that help everyone get in motion.

Next to a neon sign that reads: “Do it together, never alone”, players start the bands by stretching and presenting aloud themselves – a common symptom of Parkinson’s is a mild voice.

Very soon, small orange balls are flying anywhere.

“It’s a joy for me to play, ”Bach excited. “I don’t know how to explain to you. I can’t wait to play again. Just like drinking water – you are thirsty tomorrow and in the afternoon and evening and the next day. Water is always welcome. ”

Spin, who was founded by the winner of Oscar Susan Sarandon, is exploring the nationwide expansion of partnership. Has waiting hall in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and DC

Serves a purpose

Nearly 1 million people across the country are living with Parkinson, with about 90,000 new US cases expected this year.

The disease, which mainly affects people over 60, is characterized by the progressive loss of dopamine neurons in the brain. Known as “good hormone”, dopamine is essential for movement, motivation and reward experience.

Dr. Elizabeth Kera – Director of Neuropsychology at the Hackensack University Medical Center – said Parkinson’s patients often struggle to walk and control vibrations because the disease significantly affects the basal region of brain ganglia responsible for movement.

“We have been constantly looking for a way other than medicines to activate that brain area to produce more dopamine,” Kera Post told.

Kera, a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist who co-founded the first chapter in New Jersey, Pingpongarkinson, said the table tennis is a perfect match for Parkinson.

Pingpong significantly improves engine function because it requires hand -to -hand coordination, rapid reflexes and balance. It can also strengthen cognitive skills such as concentration and decision -making.

Kera said it is not uncommon in its chapter to see Septuagenars play with high school students or volunteers who are even younger.

“I think it helps to reintegrate patients with Parkinson’s return to society. It helps them feel less aware,” Kera said.

“It helps everyone in the secular public understand more about Parkinson’s and realize that they are not different,” she added. “This is just a chronic disease they are dealing with, just like someone with diabetes or hypertension.”

Making a win

Easterly credits the Pingpongarkinson community helping him dance from the depression he suffered when he was diagnosed six years ago.

The news came as a “great shock” even when he fought with a slight lame and a little tremor in his left hand. He did not know where to return.

“I was on its own,” Easterly recalled. “I think it’s true for many newly diagnosed people. This simply became a wonderful support group.”

He said his gentle progress of symptoms has allowed him to continue to learn full time and finish a book on the history of colonialism that will come out in November.

Meanwhile, he has a ball trying to become even better in the table tennis. He’s not Forrest Gump-But he can beat his 33-year-old son and compete with the best of the group.

“In fact it doesn’t matter Whether it’s winning the tournament or just a kind of informal games with each other, I feel like there is no really winner and loser, “said Easterly. So this is a great feeling. ”